Tikkun Daily Blog Archive (https://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/category/religion-2/page/22/)
This achievement-compassion nexus can make one’s head spin. A writer friend, Tarn, however, has an approach I admire: she always seems to consider her writing in a spiritual light, as part of her service and connection to others, not just a race for acclaim.
Rabbi Dr. Haviva Ner-David’s Shmaya Mikveh is Israel’s only pluralistic mikveh. It offers an inclusive spiritual environment to a wide variety of visitors who are often excluded from the state’s public mikvehs.
Picture a world where politics is not so polarized. Imagine that the American people are flat out in favor of a plan that could lift more than a million of their neighbors out of poverty. And they’re arriving at this position not out of narrow self-interests—most Americans aren’t poor—but for essentially moral reasons. Actually, not much imagination is required. At least not when it comes to public opinion on a perennial issue: the minimum wage.
Before death, we all need to first come to peace with all that is undone. I mean real peace now; peace that no part of us or our work is ever done.
Recently, due to my writing on the issue of boycotts and Israel, I was asked by a prominent Jewish organization to make a public, political statement before being allowed into its building to speak about my book.
What is worth discerning as 2013 draws to a close? The discerning eye perceives themes that don’t make headlines, yet may turn out to be the most determinative.
Let us agree that science has its way of seeing what is so, and freeing the mind. May the human species never abandon that lens or what can be learned looking through it– but science cannot save us; science does not look within.
Whoever means to be serious about the possibility that there is a God somewhere needs to be serious about the possibility that the way we worship is no good. The trouble with worship is that we have it so controlled that we already know all that’s going to happen. Quit your worship charades. Let go of your control and let God in.
The challenges faced by our children as they struggle to assimilate in American culture imply a very real danger of becoming conflicted and confused as they grow older. But we can all rally behind a holiday like Thanksgiving. After all, it’s a perfect blend of national, cultural and religious values: we come together as a nation, but bring our own unique foods and practices to the celebration, and we stand united with our common religious teachings of gratitude and service.
As Hanukkah approaches this week, earlier and more turkey-filled than ever, it’s important to ask that age-old question: What’s really Jewish? Rabbis and poets and the atheist uncles at my family’s Seder table have debated the question for generations. Forget the scholars and drunks, I say. The best answer I’ve ever heard came from a comedian. His name was Lenny Bruce.